Can NPP produce its 'Mango magic' this time?

Despite never winning a seat in a national election, the National People's Party has emerged as one of the major participants in the upcoming Jatiya Sangsad polls, fielding 142 candidates.

The party's Chairman Sheikh Salauddin Salu hopes this will be their time to shine.

"While we have never won a seat, our votes have increased over time. We have committees across the country. We are hoping that our candidates will get a good number of votes," he said.

In terms of fielding candidates, Salu's party, with the symbol 'mango', stands 5th among all 32 parties running for the polls this time. It just fell behind Trinomool BNP, which nominated 151 candidates.

The Jatiya Party (JaPa) holds the first position with 304 candidates, beating the ruling Awami League by one candidate. The Zaker party ranks third with 218 candidates.

Established in 2007 by former Jatiya Party leader Sheikh Shawkat Hossain Nilu, the NPP first ran for the Jatiya Sangsad polls in 2008. Its 30 candidates garnered 10,348 votes or 345 on average in the polls. All of them lost and had their security deposits seized.

In the next national election in 2014, the party joined the BNP and other opposition parties in boycotting the polls.

Four years later, in the 11th JS polls, the party returned with a revamped ambition. It nominated 81 candidates who received a total of 43,330 votes or on average 535 votes. All of them lost. In addition, the security deposits of all of the candidates were seized.

But Salu, who is vying to contest from Thakurgaon-2 seat, is optimistic that the third time will be the charm.

"I myself am optimistic about winning Thakurgaon-2 seat. Also, we hope that our party's candidate will do well in Cox's Bazar-1 seat.

"In Gopalganj-3 (Kotalipara-Tungipara) constituency, our candidate Sheikh Abul Kalam is contesting against the prime minister. We expect our candidates will get a good number of votes there too."

The 12th JS poll is slated to take place on 7 January 2024.